Vogue Portugal has been criticized for the insensitive treatment of mental health on one of its latest magazine covers.
The image of one of the four covers created for its July/August issue of Madness shows the model Simona Kirchnerova squatting in a bath flanked by two nurses, one with water on her head.
The cover has been criticized both for attempting to glorify mental illness and for using the term obsolete madness.
Portuguese model Sara Sampaio commented on Vogue Portugal’s Instagram page: These kinds of photos shouldn’t represent the conversation about mental health! I think it’s very bad taste!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCJpMfAnpoW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link
Clinical psychologist Dr Katerina Alexandraki said: Promoting the aesthetics of mental health is very problematic. It’s never a fashion, it’s so debilitating.
Not to mention the history of women and mental illness. There are hundreds of stories of abuse where women are most vulnerable.
Vogue on the other hand, opened up on its Twitter account about why the issue was focused on mental health: “It’s about love. It’s about life. It’s about us. It’s about you. It’s about now. It’s about health. It’s about mental health. #themadnessissue. It’s about time.”